Facts about Rosa Parks
- 10
Her full name was Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, and she remained married to Raymond Parks, a barber and civil rights activist, for 45 years until his death in 1977.
- 09
Forty-two days after her arrest, Rosa Parks was convicted of violating Montgomery's segregation ordinances and fined fourteen dollars plus court costs.
- 08
By 1987, Rosa Parks had founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to provide scholarships and mentorship for young African Americans pursuing higher education.
- 07
Rosa Parks attended Alabama State Teachers College for higher education, making her one of the few Black women in her generation to pursue college study during the Jim Crow era.
- 06
Throughout her life, Rosa Parks received multiple awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, recognizing her civil rights legacy.
- 05
In 1913, Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, to a schoolteacher mother and farmer father in a region marked by Jim Crow segregation.
- 04
After relocating to Detroit in 1957, Rosa Parks worked at Hampton Institute and later as a receptionist at U.S. Congressman John Conyers's office for 23 years.
- 03
At age 42, Rosa Parks worked as a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as secretary of the local NAACP chapter before her pivotal 1955 arrest.
- 02
The NAACP paid Rosa Parks's legal fees and supported her 1956 Supreme Court case challenging Montgomery's segregation laws.
- 01
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, igniting the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott.